Shuttle SZ68R5 Review

lrlcr said:
Watercool it!!!!!
Click to expand...

New plan as my old watercooling idea was a no go and the CPU hit 90c while running prime at 4.8GHz earlier eeeek.

Have ordered a 92mm Rad from germany and the- OcUK H²Flo Liquid Single Fan CPU Cooler today.
Going the have a go at modding the H²Flo by replacing the rad and see if I can get the whole thing to fit neatly inside the shuttle.

With the Shuttle ICE cooler i think 4.5GHz is really all we can hope for i'm afraid.
 
OcUK H²Flo Liquid Single Fan CPU Cooler arrived today and I have fitted it to the shuttle currently using the 120mm Rad and a silent 120mm fan and the difference in temps is quite large. I know this will reduce with a 92mm Rad and fan but even so it looks good... i'm seeing a 15c downward shift in load temps and more importantly it transfers the heat much more quickly. This is evident when the CPU load is reduced, the Shuttle cooler dropped back to idle temps very slowly this drops back almost immediatly.

The 92mm Rad is comming from germany so will probably not be here till mid next week. But I think this is going to be a good mod and maybe something Shuttle will have to consider.
 
-BA- said:
I notice the new one doesn't do DD live which is a shame.
Click to expand...

Can you expand on this and I will check it out... I'm not up to speed with Audio so explain it a simply as you can please :)

I can see that it sends Dolby Digital and DTS, lossless compressed audio streams Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio to the HDMI, which is how I use it.

Thanks for any help.
 
Sorry, it's the gamer in me again :) . DD Live is Dolby Digital Encoding which is done onboard and the signal can then be piped directly to an amp.

Because I am looking for a solution that will allow me some gaming (the sit back and relax kinda gaming like Fifa 12, Batman, Dirt 3 with an XBox 360 controller), this is a reasonably important factor for me. I have seen that there are some external USB cards that do this. Whilst not ideal, it is an option for me if I don't have room to stick a sound card in because I may be using a graphics card in a system with no onboard graphics.
 
The Shuttle I was looking at in my thread offers everything I need except for these reports of it being noisy. Sadly there are no YouTube vids of the sound to get an idea of if it would irritate me or not and £150 is a lot to gamble as it would be difficult to return under DSR if I have already built a pc into it.
 
So when I connect the Optical out to my Logitech speakers it gives me the option of Dolby Digital or DTS and both sound excellent. Is that not the same?
 
If you are talking about in movies then that is pre-encoded DD/DTS and all an amplifier has to do is decode it. If you are talking about in gaming then that should be DD Live which is encoded 'on the fly' by the soundcard. I might email Shuttle to find out as the description isn't clear as to what exact chiptset it is using.
 
All my water cooling parts arrived today so I have spent the evening doing my conversion.
I shall write this up a bit better and add it to the review in the next few days, but here are the basics...

I took the OCUK sealed water H2o unit and removed the pipes and 120mm Rad.
Then I attached a 92mm rad and some new pipes before refilling with fluid.

Temps are down quite a lot. Noise is very much the same or lower.

At 4.5GHz
Idle........ Was: 45c 47db Now: 36c 47db
Full Load.. Was: 84c 50db Now: 74c 50db

The main advantage is that temps drop much more quickly when load is reduced.

Here are a few pics.
DSC05737_s.jpg

DSC05758_s.jpg

DSC05755_s.jpg
 
nice review....i been looking to get rid of my monster rig (Antec 180) and moving to a smaller barebone unit. looked at a couple of a Li Lian cases but after reading your review.....i want this!

The 4.5ghz overclock you did, was that using the stock ICE cooler?
 
TD24 said:
nice review....i been looking to get rid of my monster rig (Antec 180) and moving to a smaller barebone unit. looked at a couple of a Li Lian cases but after reading your review.....i want this!

The 4.5ghz overclock you did, was that using the stock ICE cooler?
Click to expand...

Yes all the stats in the review are using the stock cooler.
 
Looks very nice indeed :) depending on price could be a possibility :)

Edit the more I look at it the more I like it ticks all the right boxes, 5.25" support external 3.5" support, z68 job done just need it released
 
Last edited:
Right, after spending out and building my sealed water conversion I discovered that there is a maker that does a proper 92mm sealed water system. Asetek have a model called the 545LC
545lc_straight.jpg


The odd thing is that Asetek will not sell them to the general public, just OEM system builders :(

I spoke nicely to Asetek USA though and they sent me one to test with the Shuttle, it arrived today.

The Radiator surround is smaller than my custom one and it does not block any of the Shuttle case. The fins are also more spaced out, so air flow is better too. I'm seeing temps a few degrees lower than with my custom version and thats with the fan at a slower speed.

I will do some numbers and let Shuttle know... hopefully they will do a deal with Asetek and offer these coolers either as an optional extra or as a standard fitting on some of thier most powerful machines :)
 
Last edited:
SimonMaltby said:
Right, after spending out and building my sealed water conversion I discovered that there is a maker that does a proper 92mm sealed water system. Asetek have a model called the 545LC
545lc_straight.jpg


The odd thing is that Asetek will not sell them to the general public, just OEM system builders :(

I spoke nicely to Asetek USA though and they sent me one to test with the Shuttle, it arrived today.

The Radiator surround is smaller than my custom one and it does not block any of the Shuttle case. The fins are also more spaced out, so air flow is better too. I'm seeing temps a few degrees lower than with my custom version and thats with the fan at a slower speed.

I will do some numbers and let Shuttle know... hopefully they will do a deal with Asetek and offer these coolers either as an optional extra or as a standard fitting on some of thier most powerful machines :)
Click to expand...

That looks pretty good, can you show any pictures of it installed?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom